Help, I don't know what to do!

Hi. Well about 7 weeks ago I started trying to lose some weight. I am 5'6" , 17 years old, and I was at my highest weight of 128 lbs. I cut down to about 1440 calories after almost 3 weeks and then down to 1240 calories. By the end of the 3 weeks I was at 120 lbs. I kept on the 1240 cals for another three weeks, but in those 3 weeks I only got to 118 lbs. I heard that if you are plateauing, your metabolism might be getting sluggish, and some people up their calories for a bit, to jumpstart the metabolism and then they break the plateau. Or they lower it again after a bit and the plateau breaks. So I increased to around 1540 calories. It's been a week on 1540 and today I was back up to 120 lbs. So I don't know what to do from here. Do I stay on 1540 for a bit more and wait for maybe my metabolism to catch up, and then lower it? Or will I gain 2 lbs a week on 1540 calories? I really am not sure of what to do right now. I want to be at 110 lbs.

Oh, in terms of exercise, I get about 4.5 hours of exercise a week: strength training, high resistance elliptical, jogging outdoors, abs workouts

Please give me some advice. I would appreciate it so much.

I am 18, 5'6", and when I started reading your post I thought I could help.  You see, back in January I was 186 pounds.  I am now down to 166.  I lost a bit more than that,  but then gained some back (about 5 pounds), and now am back on the road to getting to 145lbs by January 6th (1 year from my starting date).  Do you see the idea I am getting at?  My goal weight is almost 20 pounds ABOVE your starting weight.  From your picture, you look small framed, but do you realize that 110lbs is UNDERWEIGHT for someone of our height.  

I think you need to focus on your health, and not your weight.  It is very hard at this age, but we need to realize that drastically cutting calories is NOT going to solve your body issues.  Keep up your exercise.  It sounds wonderful.  But change your eating pattern.  Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full, and experiment with healthy options that you can live with for the rest of your life.  Try to set eating and exercise patterns that you will stick to for the rest of your life.

120lbs is a perfect, slim weight for your height. But anything less is straying into an area you really don't want to be in. NO teen should ever eat less than 1500 calories a day.......

Ideally you should keep up the exercise and aim to eat 2300 calories a day. This will mean you get fit and 'toned' but still get the nutrition you need and stay a healthy weight.

I would agree.  I'm 5'6 and have stopped being able to lose at 125 because that is a healthy weight for a small framed woman at this height.  Your body is going to resist your efforts to become underweight, which is what you are trying to do. Focus on toning your muscles instead of dropping more body fat. Up your protein and overall calories and add some weight work in with your cardio.  As you build muscle the number on the scale will creep up because muscle is more dense and weighs more, but you will look more slender. Plus, the more muscle you have the more cals a day your body will burn, so you will be less likely to gain weight back when you go back to normal intake.

It's because you don't need to lose weight.  Nourish your body well, eat more and get plenty of exercise to get strong.  No need to agonize over calories at your slim weight.

Thanks everyone for you advice, although it wasn't exactly what I was looking for haha. But I guess you are all correct. I know logically I should not worry about my weight. I do admit I get very influenced by media and fashion industry. Thank you for your help. :-)  Although if anyone has an alternative plan, I would also rly appreciate to hear it

This was posted 2 days ago and gave some really good advice to teenage girls.  I'd offer you advice, but I really couldn't say it any better than lynnlette did.

http://caloriecount.about.com/hello-misinform ed-teenage-girls-may-moment-ft154586